Practices and Attitudes of Intensive Care Nurses towards Oral Care Which Plays a Key Role in Preventing Mechanical Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the practices and attitudes of intensive care nurses towards oral care they performed in order to prevent Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). The universe of the research consisted of nurses who worked in intensive care units of a university hospital in Turkey between December 2018 and March 2019. 137 nurses who voluntarily accepted to participate in the study constituted the sample of the research. In order to collect the research data, a "Nurse Information Form" and a "Form for the Determination of Practices and Attitudes of Nurses towards Oral Care" was used. It was found that 97.8% of the nurses regularly performed oral care to the patients under mechanical ventilation support and 82.5% performed oral care 2‑3 times a day. Of the nurses, 83.9% stated that they did not use any specific standard guide for oral care, 92.7% stated that they used oral care solution, 77.4% stated that they used an abeslang covered with gauze as an oral care tool, and 56.2% stated that they preferred sodium bicarbonate as an oral care solution. Of the nurses, 99.3% stated that oral care should definitely be performed in intensive care units, 19% stated that oral care was an unpleasant application, 82.5% stated that oral care can prevent VAP. As a result of this study, it was found that the attitudes of the nurses towards oral care, which plays a key role in preventing mechanical VAP, were positive, that they performed oral care without an evaluation guide and protocol.